We are rolling out a new version of the Google+ Hangouts app (goo.gl/XkHn03) for Android, which includes support for SMS and MMS messages. While this is a great step forward, we still have a lot of work to do, specifically around Google Voice:

- Unfortunately, today’s update does not work with Google Voice numbers unless you’ve enabled Google Voice on your Sprint phone. But rest assured, we’re working to support SMS messages for all Google Voice phone numbers by early next year. And don’t worry, your Voice number will go unchanged.

- We hear you loud and clear: you want Google Voice phone numbers outside the US and to support MMS. We are listening and working hard to make this happen, but we need to work with carriers and this can take some time.

- Finally, we want to make Google Voice as secure as possible. There are a few third-party applications that provide calling and SMS services by making unauthorized use of Google Voice. These apps violate our Terms of Service and pose a threat to your security, so we’re notifying these app developers that they must stop making unauthorized use of Google Voice to run their services and transition users by May 15, 2014.

We know that communicating with your friends and family should be easy and that you want one app that can do it all. We’re working hard to deliver that experience for everyone. It will take some time before Google Voice is fully integrated into Hangouts, and we appreciate your patience along the way.﻿

Thanks for the update. If Talkatone and others will lose GV integration then I sure hope at least voice calling is included soon. Even if full Hangouts integration will take some time I don't understand why ios can get calling and not Android.﻿

Thank you for the update, and the best of luck for your talks with international carriers and regulators as you try to bring google voice to the non us world, which i am really looking forward to! cheers﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal I ported my number and paid the fee because I thought this feature would be coming soon. Its been over a year now that I haven't been able to receive proper SMS and MMS. If I port out my number back to my carrier, will I have to pay again to port it back in once this Google Voice is integrated with Hangouts? I would hope not. ﻿

+Sam Rothermel - yes, but remember that the Voice integration with Hangouts has already happened, just not on Android. When I make a phone call with the Hangouts Chrome app, for example, it places it from my GV number.﻿

I understand you might run into technical issues but this should already be resolved. If I can make a call from Hangouts on my iPad, then I should be able to do the same from my Nexus and be able to send and receive MMS. I just don't get it. ﻿

The SMS integration into Hangouts -- are we talking Google Voice, Carrier or both? Half of what I read sounds like it's carrier, other half makes it sound like it's Google Voice...

Also would love to see the ability to send/receive SMSs through Hangouts on non-phone devices. I'd love to be able to send/receive SMSs from the desktop without having to interrupt work flow too much by having to stop and mess around with another device. ﻿

+Jason Gruber It's carrier. This, to me, is a sign that the tablet version of Hangouts won't be able to send texts. If this is wrong, someone please correct me. But I have yet to see anything that says otherwise. If that's the case, then I won't be getting my family away from iMessage anytime soon...﻿

+Thomas Aschemann I'm hoping when a text comes into the phone it'll automatically forward it on to the rest of my Hangouts devices (tablet, desktop, etc) and when I send a message with the SMS flag it gets routed to the phone and sent out via its connection...﻿

The articles statement of "If you have a Voice number, it may be useless for SMS until Google can get things back on track." scares me. My Google Voice number is the ONLY number I use for SMS. One single person uses MMS with me on my StraightTalk number, but I don't want to be without SMS for an unknown number of months. Would I still be able to use the regular Google Voice app for GVoice SMS?﻿

+Thomas Aschemann iPads can't send text messages either, so what does iOS have to do with this?

iMessage works like this: If you have an iPhone, you can send iMessages to ANY other iOS/OSX device, and SMS to ANY other SMS-recipient. If you have an iPad, you can send iMessages to ANY other iOS/OSX device. That's it. If you're using an iPad, there's no way of 'falling back' to the SMS protocol, because you need a carrier to send SMS.

It's the same with iMessage on OSX. It can only send messages to other iOS/OSX devices.﻿

VoIP/GV integration in Hangouts is a big deal -- buy an LTE (or just a WiFi) Nexus 7, and boom, no need for a voice/text plan. That's potentially huge. "Disruptive," even. ...so, in the coming months, eh?

But wait ...

One could buy a freakin' iPad (or an iPod Touch) right now and take advantage of this possibility.

Should Android users anticipate future much-needed updates ending up on iOS much sooner than on Android?

And you know, Apple isn't exactly a friendly competitor.

I don't expect full and perfect integration with GV right this moment, but I do expect feature parity with the iOS version.

I think it's time I give up on Google Voice, as it just hasn't been getting the attention it needs for quite some time. I'm switching to an off-contract plan with unlimited texting on +T-Mobile next month, so the only thing keeping me on Google Voice is the Chrome extension. Mighty Text it is I guess.﻿

+Claudio Ibarra I believe what's being stated here is that you can't use your Google Voice number as a setup number within the Hangouts app. So say you have a "real" number and a Google Voice number, right? Essentially, you can use your "real" (or carrier) number for SMS through Hangouts, but if you were to use your Google Voice number it wouldn't work. Yet.﻿

+Claudio Ibarra Honestly it's just continuing with what everyone (aside from Sprint Customers apparently) has been living with. This may seem like Google pandering but , but they've been strongly pointed towards unification of not only Android, but all their services across all devices. Hangouts for iOS is a prelude to future one-stop-shop communication apps through Google that will include Google Voice and Hangouts all together. ﻿

What it feels like is dozens or hundreds of people working on G+ full-time, round the clock, in shifts, and one guy working on GVoice in his spare time during his lunch break. I worry about Google Voice's future when it [feels like it] gets such little consideration and so infrequently.

Google is a big company full of very intelligent people. If they wanted to, they could probably unite Messages, GVoice and Hangouts more meaningfully and more quickly. ﻿

I feel the snotty mention of 'violators' of your terms of use is rather disrespectful of developers who have taken the good time and effort to give us the functionality we need in our mobile devices. Maybe if you had given us a solution with parity to your iOS hangouts counterpart they wouldn't have had to come up with sub optimal solutions, +Nikhyl Singhal ﻿

Who cares who gets what first if it's about the unification of services? When it comes to messaging apps, Google is playing catch up. All good things in time. Either way, if you have an Android phone, my recommendation would be to prioritize it. I have a Nexus, I want the Hangouts app to be integrated as much as the next guy...but there are always complications that you and I aren't aware of. After all, if we could just wave our hand over the phone and have it work, I'm sure we'd be in a much more different position than we are now in the tech industry.

On another note, I share your concern +Claudio Ibarra about Google's dedication to services they consider no longer of use. While I didn't use Reader myself, I empathized with them over it's shutdown. ﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal Given the Hangouts update on Android will take a while to incorporate voice calling, it's unfortunate apps like Skype cannot access the right audio protocols on the Nexus 4 to have clear voice calls (the mic is too sensitive and there is massive echo on the receiving party's end). Third party apps like Skype are only able to access the Camcorder audio protocol on the N4. Given many of us with a Nexus device are using prepaid plans that have have limited voice minutes, this issue should really be addressed in the meanwhile. Thanks for listening.﻿

Thanks for the update. As international Google Voice integration will take some time, how about Hangouts with a direct voice only option (basically using the current capabilities of the product without video)? So you have the option to use SMS, chat, video or voice. Also, as you seem to send SMS over the standard provider, why don't you allow to make a standard phone call? That would be nice and you would win a lot of new users﻿

+Justin Cunningham The problem is loyalty from Google. This isn't the first time they've released must-desired features on an opposing platform and made its loyal fans wait. Waiting months is only making tempers rise even more. Why should I buy into their platform if their best features come out on iOS first? I'm a Nexus 4 user. If you know anything about the Nexus brand, Google's whole selling point was "you'll get stuff first!" I guess I was duped.﻿

Does this mean that Google Voice Callback app by Evan Charlton which is now only available via Amazon will be blocked? I rely on this third party app to make and receive calls, texts and to ensure my number for my devices remains private and without it, it would hinder that potential and add more inconvenient steps to dialing for me. ﻿

+Thomas Aschemann how ridiculous is it that someone who just plunked down $400 on a Nexus 5, Google's flagship device will not be getting the same level of features as from a year old iPod touch in regards to hangouts? The only response? "Hopefully we'll have it worked out in 4-5 months when we turn off all third party services that do this for you"﻿

So you're telling me I can't use my Google Voice number for VOIP calls in hangouts, and can't even do SMS? This makes me want to cancel my Nexus 5 order and but a damn iPhone. Been a loyal google user:. OG Droid, Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 7 x2, Nexus 4, and soon to be shipping Nexus 5 and iOS gets better update than us...﻿

+Cliff Coleman "Does this mean the end of Google Voice on ObiHai devices?"

I desperately hope not. My entire extended family just finished porting their home numbers to Google Voice for use on ObiHai devices. If Google's gonna kill ObiHai, they'd better market an official replacement.﻿

Thanks for the update. Sad and happy news. Sounds like another 6 months of missing group texts and pics of my new baby niece.(Note I try to steer friends and family to Hangouts/Email as I prefer them personally for obvious reasons)﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal currently the voice app has an option to "receive text messages via the messaging app". Am I right to assume this won't work for hangouts? Notification (SMS or voicemail) are a total mess currently. They don't sync across device and trying to use "voice mails in the phone app" option doesn't mark them as read at all.

Also how about some location aware options to change phone forwarding? I wrote a tasker plugin to do this based on whether I'm home, at work, or elsewhere.﻿

This is actually about as clear as mud. First question... With regard to SMS messages, does the first bullet point mean that the Voice app is going away? And if so, is it going away before SMS is integrated into the Hangouts app?

Next, from what I'm reading, apparently ALL applications that access Voice are going to be squashed by March, 2014? Or is it only "rogue" applications? I rely on GrooveIP pretty heavily and GrowlVoice is SIGNIFICANTLY more convenient than relying on a web page to access Voice.

Finally, if these other apps that access Voice are going to be forced to shut down, is Google going to allow for VOIP through Hangouts over Voice? Seems kind of asstacular to shut down third party applications that offer functionality that Google doesn't offer and doesn't plan to.﻿

+David Byrne, if you're talking about the Sprint mention at the beginning of the post, that would just be Sprint proper. None of the Sprint/Voice integration carries over to their MVNOs, unfortunately.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal I want the option of keeping Google voice totally independent from other sms / phone apps. The reason? I use Google voice not as my primary number but as a secondary "work" number. Keeping it independent means I'll be able to keep my business texts, call history, etc separate from my personal texts, call history, etc. To combine Google voice functionality with Hangouts and / or the dialer app and not give me the choice to keep them separate would be terrible. I'd even be willing to pay for the service if that's what it took. ﻿

Maddening, that iOS gets the full-boat GV/Hangouts integration before 4.4 is released, and then hear that GV/Hangouts integration on Android is still "months" away.... I wish someone from the Google team could at least give a reasonable explanation as to why that is. #makesnosense ﻿

I appreciate some communication, but to leave us hanging that long since the update where you said hangouts would become the future of voice, and then roll it out to IOS, but tell Android users they have to wait potentially until the end of May is madness. Even if the service has 1 1/2 million subscribers. If it's completely integrated, free wifi calling, natively, so many more people would adopt it. Hopefully you can work with the carriers close enough to implement pass-off from wifi to cell tower, as well as get MMS working. I really hope that if you are cutting off voip services you give us your own solution, preferably that works way better, higher voice quality, native video conferencing cross platform or at least to google devices by phone #, I assume that's why you made the cutoff next May. Also, please don't axe the service even if it only has 1 1/2 million. If this went worldwide that number would shoot way up. Visual voicemail with text transcription(which hasn't seemed to improve in line with your speech recognition engine), portability, texting from browser with the google voice extension is everything I want, and our U.S. carriers have zero innovation in that department. However I have also been using the service for so long with no updates or bug fixes seemingly to the chrome extension/Android app interface. No unicode? Seriously, what's up with that? At least fix THAT. I appreciate all you guys do, but come on. Please expedite this, I have been patiently waiting for a very long time and there has been almost zero communication from Google. Thanks for the update Nikhyl.﻿

Thank you for the update. My Sprint phone was no longer was integrated with Google Voice when I upgraded. I've looked on the boards to try to get it to work again & after a lot of digging, I saw that there is currently a known glitch that doesn't allow new Voice users or users who had the service interrupted (like with an upgrade) to integrate with Sprint phones at the moment.

+Nikhyl Singhal can you explain what cooperation you need from carriers? The Google voice app currently receives sms messages via the data connection with no cooperation from the carriers. Just having my voice sms messages show up in hangouts would be huge. ﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal+Randall Sarafa What about texting to/from international numbers using a Google Voice number? Please tell me that's also on the near-term roadmap? (Yes, I'm quite willing to pay per text.)﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal Likely repeating concerns already expressed, but how will this impact people whom have ported their personal phone number to Google Voice and no longer have a wireless carrier? I'm using only existing android, gmail, and web client from Google Voice.﻿

Firstly, you guys are complete assclowns for not having the foresight to bake Google Voice into Android from the start. Secondly, maybe us end-users wouldn't be as upset if you didn't treat the Google Voice app like a bastard step-child that has some of the most horrendous ui/ux of all your services.

But guess what? It doesn't matter anymore, I'm building my own VoIP and putting it on my server. I'm transitioning away from Gmail as we speak too. You guys can keep your business records, and the government can go fuck itself over any third-party doctrine. I am seriously starting to look into SailfishOS.

Peace out skynet, I'm done with big brother. I finally have learned that no product offered by a corporation is free; if it is, you're the product. ﻿

Sorry, +Nikhyl Singhal , but I have to call bullshit. MMS has been missing for at least 4 YEARS! You are partnering with Sprint and can't even get it working with them in some non-hackish fashion? Hangouts and voice are your own products and you can't make them a priority? Somebody isn't trying hard enough.﻿

So it has been known for a while the core of IM (which became Hangouts) has shifted from XMPP (with Jingle extensions in the case of GV) to WebRTC. So am I to understand correctly that despite being based on an(other) open standard, WebRTC, there won't be enough details forthcoming to allow companies such as Obihai to release new firmware which "speaks" WebRTC instead of XMPP/Jingle?﻿

I have several OBIs - I am devastated by this news. I don't care about getting a dozen DIDs to connect these phones. I am happy to buy for the privilege of connecting an Obi to Google Voice but please please don't just shut it down.﻿

+Markus Mobius, the call and data routing is suboptimal, having to go through another routing point, but it's not all that bad, I don't think. IPKall on the west US coast, and Callcentric on the east coast, offer no cost DIDs to which you can forward your GV number(s). I don't know about any in the central region. You say you'd be willing to pay; there are just a plethora of VOIP providers from which to choose for this, many for low rates. Follow the links in the Obihai blog post. All you have to do is use the SIP options instead of the Google Voice options on your OBi(s).

I use IPKall and an OBi110 personally, all they require is at least 1 call per month(?) to keep the DID active. The only problem for me with them is the delay going coast-to-coast is significant (I'm in the Buffalo, NY area), so I'm looking into Callcentric. The other fly in the ointment would be dialing would not be as automatic; unless you want your VOIP number to be the Caller-ID number, it would involve either using a Web browser (to "dial" with the Contacts Web app for example), or dialing your GV #, entering your PIN, then the number you're dialing (although fiddling with the digit maps might automate this somewhat). On the plus side, for arguably small amounts of money per month ($1.50 or thereabouts for Callcentric), you'll have E911, so less worries there.﻿

I've been biting my tongue on this in the hopes that the Google Voice SMS integration would happen with the new Hangouts/KLP/KitKat, but since we now know this isn't happening, I can't hold back any longer...

As a Google Voice user from Day 1 (post Grand Central), Google has seriously neglected both the GV app and it's users. Yes it does the basics as it always has, but it's slow, clunky, looks HORRIBLE, and is missing countless features that many other SMS apps have had from the beginning, or have long since added. Google has updated literally EVERY other Google app except for Google Voice, I mean it hasn't seen a substantial update in years. It can't even do MMS! MMS! But you know what, I lived with it. I lived with it because of the promise of things to come, in true Google "Beta" nature. But Google Voice (which is actually one of Google's best ideas/concepts IMO) has limped along with almost no updates and definitely no new features. Something had to give....and then.. Hangouts.

When the news of Hangouts leaked early, Google Voice users let out a collective sigh of relief that Google was finally taking messaging seriously. But then when Hangouts launched, we were told no GV support yet, but, it's "coming soon." Hangouts launched back in what, May? And now here we are November 1 and not only do we NOT have Google Voice support in Hangouts, Google via +Nikhyl Singhal is saying that the hold-ups are:

1) Carriers 2) 3rd party apps using the GV service... AND, Google has given them a date of May 15, 2014 (Next YEAR!) to transition their apps off of GV?

If this process was going to take so long, why the hell wasn't it started much much earlier? Carriers? Please, we all know how quickly they move. So now loyal Google Voice users and early adopters are stuck waiting basically an entire year for Google +Google Voice to get their shit together with Hangouts, to offer something that should have been there from the very beginning? Beyond fed up right now. It's like they JUST started looking into the GV integration, and ran into issues. So when +Nikhyl Singhal announced future GV support after the original Hangouts launch, clearly that was just to shut us up, no?

I will continue to barely use Hangouts as the gTalk replacement it kind of sort of is, until Google stops leaving loyal Google Voice users behind. Even though Hangouts SHOULD have launched with it, regular SMS integration serves no purpose to me, or to many others, and Google should have thought about people using Google's own damn SMS service FIRST! Worst early adopter's remorse EVER. And I love to early adopt!

After owning every single previous Nexus smartphone, and two Nexus tablets, I'm not even excited to buy a Nexus 5 at this point.﻿

I'd have to agree with +Jason Allen there. Hangouts is a really frakked up replacement for Google Talk at least.

It just hit me, Pidgin could stop working with Google too. Sigh. Bigger (such as video calling) is not always better. Sometimes all we need is small pieces of text to fly to and fro, not voice or video. Sometimes all we need is the functionality of a Hangout's chat.﻿

+Jason Allen To add to insult to injury, Hangouts on iOS can make and receive (with a GV number) VoIP calls. Hangouts for Android can't because ... 3rd party apps? Security? They don't have the decency to actually address the matter directly. ﻿

As an early adopter of GV myself, and now make exclusive use of gv for calls (Grooveip) and SMS (Google's own app) I must simply point out that all of this complaining is in regards to a free service. I am greatly desiring better Hangouts and GV integration more than just about anyone, but I am remaining thankful to Google for providing a free service that has saved me an incredible amount of money over these past years with GV, and even more thankful to hear that they aren't leaving us behind. ﻿

+Timothy Easley Sure, a free service... Except the money I give them through google wallet payments, calling credits on my google voice, royalties they get from the phones we buy through Motorola's patents, money they earn from search revenue, money they earn on our app purchases through the play stores. Google has made a buttload of money off of me, I know that as a fact. Hell, I've early adopted almost every google service and helped in many unfathomable ways, only to get kicked to the curb with google voice. I haven't saved any money through google voice, I've had unlimited texting since I switched to Google voice. What I don't get are multimedia messages, group chat, or emoji due to lack of unicode. Free, yes, but well paid for in the end. It's about time Google does something about this.﻿

+Joe Philipps I agree 100%. I actually stopped using Pidgin b/c the Hangouts chat built into Chrome was "good enough", but it does suck to lose that ability b/c I love me some Pidgin. I actually didn't use Hangouts much at first b/c without the online/offline status, it was a pretty useless replacement for gTalk.

+Christopher Carr Exactly. Don't even get me started on that. They built VOIP calling into the Android dialer back in 4.0, 4.1? This was the perfect opportunity to leverage Google Voice for VOIP calls. It's time Google innovates and stops worrying about pissing off the carriers. We're waiting Google!

+Timothy Easley I do see your points, and while I AM thankful for GV at all, it's not REALLY free (as in beer). Yes it's free to use, but like GMail, Google harvests all of our GV data - phone calls, SMS's etc. They use our SMS and voicemail data to improve their translation/transcription services, and have no doubt that they use all of this data to target for advertising. So yes it's free, but we pay for it in giving them the privilege of using our data. ﻿

I may have only paid them indirectly. I bought mine at Walmart. I just couldn't see caving into their animated ads on Search. But yeah, despite being a market leader in terms of units deployed, Android is taking a back seat to iDevices.﻿

It's unacceptable that Google Voice has not been updated at the level of these new apps like Hangouts. It's one of the best services Google offers and one that I'm happy to pay for as a subscription (ala Skype) or one time fee.﻿

+Jason Allen I am aware of how the income keeps flowing with Google. I also am not going to act as if that gives me some right to complain. It does not. I choose to stay with the service that Google offers as long as it is beneficial to me. It is still beneficial to me and more than worth what they may learn from my call frequencies and elsewise, therefore I will continue to be thankful and in use of this service. My point is, if it is no longer beneficial to you (either through its use or your frustration) then there is nothing keeping you from moving off its service. ﻿

+Timothy Easley It IS still beneficial to me, I never stated otherwise. I'm simply saying that for an app as important as Google Voice is to those who use it, it's unacceptable how little attention they have given it. If you're a GV user, I'd argue that it's a core service, and probably the most important Google service next to Gmail. It handles your phone #, SMS messages, and Voicemail. Can't get any more core than that for a phone. Might even be more important than the Gmail app to me for that reason. For an app of that magnitude to go this long without any significant changes is ridiculous. Every single Google app (aside from the ones they phased out) has gotten major updates in recent months/years EXCEPT for Voice. If they weren't going to build it into Hangouts from Day 1, they should have at least given the Voice app the same treatment as their other apps considering its importance. ﻿

So sticking with +Sprint all these years has a perk: Google Voice and Google Hangouts with SMS and MMS integration on day one of +KIT KAT launch. Thanks Sprint for being such a staunch supporter or open platforms! Can't wait to see what #SprintSpark has in store.﻿

+Joe Philipps thanks - but I don't want to administer DIDs. And I want to show my GV number when making outgoing calls. What I liked about the Obi was simplicity. Moreover, 4 of my friends who bought OBIs based on my recommendation will just drop them - it's far too complicated if you have to juggle several accounts.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal Many like me use a Nexus phone with T-mobile $30 plan, which include only 100 minutes. If GrooveIP loose GV access without a voice calling replacement from hangouts, it will be a little issue for us. More so, since iOS already has voice calling, but new Android version seems will not have it. Also, out of curiosity, if you guys could get iOS voice calling done without carrier intervention, why would it be a problem for Android? Voicemails?﻿

+Niko Lowry Exactly. I made my GV # my main # years ago. Everyone always asks why I can't receive MMS's, and have to give this long drawn out story about GV that no one understands. Some I give my actual cell #, but mostly people just have to e-mail me pictures which is really ridiculous in 2013. I run PacMan on my N4 too.. great ROM! I tried Voice+ but like the stock messaging app UI even less than the GV one, and it still doesn't do MMS, so I'll just continue to use it, but I won't be happy about it haha. I refuse to believe that none of the Googlers use GV and haven't said "can we get an update for this damn thing?!"﻿

+Jason Allen if I send an MMS from the native app it will send via Google voice or my cell number. It's never consistent, and I have to preface my MMS message with a warning that they might receive it via a weird number.

If someone sends me MMS it will sometimes go in the native messaging app, and other times it will send to my gmail.﻿

My frustration stems from when after ios got VOIP +Vic Gundotra said to Android users, "I promise you will be happy soon." I expected today's update to at least include VOIP to put it on par with ios. I guess we are to believe by soon he meant 6 months from now and 6 months after ios gets it. Don't over promise and under deliver. That's customer service 101. #makesnosense ﻿

+Jason Allen Can't agree more on the long drawn out story about MMS and group messaging that nobody understands.

Luckily I have a group of friends with enough sense to email me stuff without question, although the frustration of the phantom MMS and group messages always brews inside me... VOIP calling? I don't care THAT much, but it is nice at friend's houses where I have very spotty service.

and you gotta be right about the google employees utilizing voice... lol. Certainly doesn't get more core than google voice, hopefully they push voice and people realize how useful it is.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal Your suggestion that developers have violated Google's terms of service and posed a security risk is disingenuous to put it charitably. Google has fostered, supported, and encouraged the development of jabber and jingle interfaces to Google Voice since its inception. See http://nerd.bz/1ggu2t1 for the history. To now claim that these developers have somehow misused services that Google has supported AND hosted on Google's own developer web site is nothing short of insulting!﻿

I'm glad to see this moving forward. I've been hoping for a sort of SMS-sync service in Hangouts, similar to what MightyText or MySMS is doing. GV integration will probably be that answer. That means I'll have to get people to use that number instead...keep up the hard work +Nikhyl Singhal and don't let the masses bring you down!﻿

+Matt WedgwoodYup, it appears Google is determined to kill any 3rd party use of Google Voice. What remains to be seen is if there will be an option for VOIP calling and texting that does not use carrier minutes or carrier texting. I'm suspicious that the line about "working with carriers" means the answer will end up being a big fat NO.﻿

It's a bummer that you guys are dropping the service. You're user base is going to drop heavily. And just at the time I was considering getting a google phone. Guess I'll actually consider a microsoft phone. They do have better cameras anyways... and I really don't care about all the fart apps you guys have on google play...﻿

Google, why are you going backward? XMPP standard protocol and dropping support of a widely support protocol is just taking steps backup. I've been using google voice for years and have been telling people how great it is and the internal rate is so cheap. Please reconsider and don't drop support for XMPP.﻿

"pose a threat to your security" This is a joke right? If you are going to throw security threats in the mix please at least come up with some more detailed explanation.My guess is that they are shutting down Google Voice XMPP support because it's starting to cost them too much money and they don't have a way to monetize the service.I'm guessing that many people have signed up for GV because of the availability of these third part apps and devices like the Obi.Instead of just shutting down the service they should just offer users the option of paying for XMPP or SIP usage.I'd be more than happy to pay a per minute fee for SIP usage of Google Voice.﻿

So I will no longer be able to forward my Google Voice number to a handset? Is Google going to offer a Google approved way to do this? I don't want to have to change my phone number, AGAIN. If Google really wants us to use Voice, then it needs to find a way to allow people the flexibility to use the service in this way. If not, I'm going to have to use something else.﻿

Why is Google voice such a red-headed step child for Google? Why does it always get second billing to everything else going on in the Google eco-system. Just once I would like Google to send out an announcement that doesn't include a disclaimer that they have done nothing for Google voice users yet. As always, continually disappointed Google voice user. ﻿

MMS messages are a thing of the past, Google! I know a lot of ignorant people keep asking for this feature, but it's up to you to show some leadership and make them realise why they don't need this useless, outdated technology anymore! Please don't waste any time or resources on this, especially when it requires carrier collaboration and such. Just get everything integrated into a single app so that I can make Google Voice calls in Hangouts over VoIP and forget that my "real" phone number ever existed! Also so that my friends abroad can finally use Google Voice.NO to MMS!﻿

You are taking a happy user community using GV & Obi. Instead of adding value and functionality and competing in the market place with better ideas, you are shutting things down and pushing customers away!

How about trying to monitize your established GV user base with a simple $5 / month or negotiating open access to ecosystem partners or such offer. You already have the customer base and technology that is working with a strong ecosystem.

I am one of those people who ditched my home phone, and started using Google Voice and a device (made by Obi). I had tried various VOIP solutions in the past. The google voice/Obi combo was not only the cheapest (who can beat free) but it was also the easiest to set up and most reliable. I don't actually care who provides the box. I also would be willing to pay a small fee. Why don't you guys provide hardware for a simple VOIP solution at home? It seems to give well with your philosophy/strategy. It drives people back to your core services (gmail), and it would consolidate across devices (home phone, mobile, computer etc...). You could even solve some fundimental problems with VOIP along the way (911, fax, home security systems).I can only think of 2 reasons you might be moving away from this. One, being in the VOIP business brings along additional potential regulations that are probably avoided in the current implementation. Google has never been one to shy away from that. The other is that you are afraid of pissing off some companies that you need for the other side of your business. I think verizon and ATT are both in the home phone business. I assume that you do not want to risk pissing them off when you need them to help further Android (although you have enough market share now that you could probably flex that muscle if you really wanted too).Anyways, I really hope that before my Obi goes down in May, google can figure out how to either partner with some hardware manufacture (why not ObiHai, I already have one of those!) or manufacture their own device. ﻿

Also, I am not sure if Obihai falls in the box where Google is protecting me because of security. I am not sure how that could be the case, but if it is, it's all the more reason for Google to make their own hardware.﻿

Or partner with Obi (they are known and have a working device) to make it 'secure' or buy them outright?

So far as getting other partners po'd like AT&T and Verizon, didn't stop Google from getting into high speed fiber business. Or getting into Google Play / GoogleTV to compete with Comcast / TimeWarner, etc. So not sure that argument holds much water.﻿

Yah. I agree. I don't think the "pissing off partners" argument really stands. I was trying to think of why they wouldn't do it. I think it's probably just not wanting to dedicate resources to it. If I was Obihai, I wouldn't be holding my breath for an offer from Google. ﻿

Breaking Obi boxes and GrooveIP app is not a great start to "improving" Google Voice. ("Dont be evil" was the google motto) I see using the new hangout app on Android 4.1.2 today asks me to ask my contacts to join google plus/hangouts. Its a very clunky app. I have to assume that making everything google plus and google hangouts compatible is simply a move for google to get more users on google plus to satisfy its obsession with facebook. Once again when it comes to free product/services on google (or facebook) "users" are the "product" not the "customer". Prove me wrong and give us GV desktop and Android phone users all the google voice functionality we have now...and more...﻿

Guys, it's not like Google published an API for apps to use and is now pulling the plug. These apps were always hacks and never guaranteed to work. I really wish Google would publish a proper API for app developers to use, but until they do, you shouldn't complain. Just be glad they gave you 6 months warning! They could have pulled the plug at any time...﻿

+Matt WedgwoodI would doubt it, but I don't work at Google :(. GrooveIP connects users directly to the Google Talk forwarding "phone". It's not really any different from answering directly from the computer, except that you can use a phone for it.

Google, if GrooveIP is against your terms of service, please change your terms of service! That app is a killer feature that makes Google Voice worth having!﻿

Ryan this post linked below seems to discuss the API issues and protocols and google's real motivations. Lately I am not seeing much "improvement" in google services. Just dumbing down cutting features and trying to "google plus" everything again due to facebook obsession.

I guess Ill just wait to see what google voice/hangouts looks like and then wait for the "hackers" to give a solution that google refuses to do

http://nerdvittles.com/?p=5758
"The current train wreck turns out to be yet another turf war motivated by retribution against Microsoft’s recent decision to support XMPP in its Outlook.com unified messaging product, something most companies would have greeted with jubilation. Instead, Google is miffed that Microsoft was now supporting its messaging protocol while continuing to keep its own protocol proprietary."﻿

6 months are a long time. Hopefully, Google will figure out some solution before my Obis become obsolete. I wouldn't mind buying a box from Google if that's what it takes - but I most definitely don't want to buy phone numbers from some shoe-string VOIP providers where I need to constantly on the lookout that they don't go bankrupt and/or take away my number if I go on a 2-week vacation. The Obi is just amazingly simple.﻿

No, I don't want one app that does everything. I want to KNOW whether I'm sending a message via SMS or XMPP because they have different cost, delivery, reception, and security profiles. For example, IP connectivity is frequently very expensive for me, but SMS may be free in the same location.﻿

The reason we use apps like GrooveIP is that we want VOIP based integration into the phone. Maybe if you supported GV calling natively on the phone like you do with SIP?Also, GV accounts outside US is great for expanding your user base - but how about letting your current users send texts to international numbers first?!?﻿

From the announcement and the sound of the conversation, I expect that Google is not looking for any way to partner with Obi or provide a "solution" for Obi/GV users. The solution, if there is one, will have to come from OBI.

Although pure speculation, it smells like an acquisition play. Google drops XMPP forcing the value of OBI as a company down overnight. If they wanted to acquire an ATA company, timing and value could not be better.

Given the six month notification window, and generally known precarious nature of GV as a selling tool for OBI, I wouldn't be surprised if OBI already has a set of solutions in the wings. If they can sustain the valuation downdraft for awhile, and they know they have a solution ready and waiting, maybe they want to take out some investors at a low valuation.

I suspect there are more than just technology and security issues afoot. Like Beatrix says, "I've got Big Rats".﻿

Google says: "Hey Google Voice developers for improving out crappy product and filling in for our lack of support (and lack of acknowledgment) for years. Let us reward you by killing all of your work in a few months. It's for your own good."

+Ryan HayleYou are correct. I went looking for Google Voice APIs to try to create a client application for texting, and there is nothing except some HTTP hacks that simulate a web-browser. I sure hope they create a nice set of APIs for the newer system, so that Groove IP can be updated to continue to work with it. If they're killing off the old system and going to release a new one with a - better be - nice API, then I'm not so against it. Otherwise, they're turning into Apple. +Nekhyl Singhal I'll speak for a body here - we're Android users for a reason: CHOICE!﻿

Since Asterix provides SIP support, such a solution would replicate the current Obi functionality (although it involves running an Asterix server - itself a daunting prospect but maybe less daunting than having to buy multiple VOIP numbers simply to forward GV calls)﻿

+Andrew Abraham Keep in mind that nobody owes you anything. The fact that they're giving anyone any features at all is a good thing. Stop being a greedy little shit and pipe your ass down. "don't ignore the rest of the world" you say? Google can do whatever the fuck it wants.

The features you want are going to be rolling out slowly in the future, and GV calling will be added to hangouts early next year.﻿

I'm going to assume you actually do understand the relationship one has with Google vis-à-vis their "free" products. But in case not, here's a hint: they derive monetizable value from our using them. The products are not free.

And some of us even pay them for Apps accounts, storage, hardware, etc. Google is a corporation with a profit-maximizing goal (and they are very profitable indeed, with many billions USD in liquid assets). Google is not a charity.

+Andrew Abraham not denying anyone freedom of speech, I am merely stating my grievances with someone. I hate it when people think they should be waited on hand and foot. Freedom of speech has to do with my grievances just as much as it has to do with that child's right to say he deserves the world to bow down to him.﻿

So then what does this mean in simplest terms? I'm switching to Republic Wireless soon and planned on porting my VZW number to GV, should I hold off? I only get one shot since I can't port an RW number﻿

Curious if GrooVeIP and Talkatone are in violation, what about hardware vendors such as Obihai? We've been using an OBI 100 which has been FANTASTIC --the call quality is superior to GrooVeIP and the like since it doesn't use WIFI. It has cut our cell phone bill to about $25/month. Don't leave us hanging! ﻿

I use Talkatone and have been able to replace my cell phone with a much more capable iPod Touch that allows me to call and text any U.S. numbers unlimited for free over wifi. I worry that this update from Google will destroy this functionality.﻿

+Sean Kovacs you got it a bit wrong here. Apple blocks services and apps even when it doesn't use any of apples resources. Here the unauthorized Google voice apps put a significant burden on GV. Furthermore they segment the quality of service and experience. It's not good for both Google and the user. But if wanted to make your own service similar to gv, Google wouldn't stop you. How could you compare?﻿

Killing ObiHai sucks. I ported my long time number to Google Voice for the functionality Obi and GV provide together. If GV use gets tied to my cell phone minutes, or even just my cell phone, I will be porting my number elsewhere. Most of my phone talking is at home and I prefer the comfort and long battery life of a multi-handset cordless system.﻿

+Steve Elmo libjingle was published before Google voice got integrated into Google talk. Voice also required separate APIs not available to the public. XMPP chat clients never included the ability to make phone calls using Google voice, and moreover no service that has supported this feature in recent times has made their implementation public, which violates the GPL in and of itself, even if the APIs for Voice calls was completely open. ﻿

+Steve Elmo I thought I was. I was trying to address the whole rationale behind google decision on the future of voice: "These apps violate our Terms of Service and pose a threat to your security,"...I have to call out hypocrisy when I see it....﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal Thanks for reaffirming my decision to move away from Google services as a user of Microsoft devices. I'm glad I realized early on that the YouTube incident was just the first in a string of decisions to alienate Google customers on competitor's platforms. I guess I'll take my ad dollars to another company.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal I block all SMS through my carrier because of bad spam, and love using GV. Was sad to see today when opening my Nexus 5 that I could not integrate GV, but am happy it's in the works. Thanks for working hard on this for all of your loyal users. It makes the Android experience that much better,﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal seems to be some oversight in this choice. Users using Google voice have no way to sms on the nexus 5 or android 4.4. since the Google voice app can't be set as the default SMS app and hangouts won't incorporate we are left in the dark.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal I'm hoping you can clear this up: GV users on iOS can already get SMS to their GV number via the Google Voice app, and VoIP calls via Hangouts for iOS. Why does it require so much time to add SMS capability—and here I'm talking only about SMS to a GV number—to the iOS Hangouts app? As it is now Google forces users to use two different apps from the same company to get both functions.﻿

Honestly, I really don't care what happens with Google Voice as long as the following remains true: 1) I can still place texts from the Google Voice website, without having to use the Hangouts app2) I can still get calls to my Google Voice number3) All my phone activity is still stored in the cloud

#3 is really the most important to me and the reason I haven't given up on Google Voice and switched to using DeskSMS or something similar. I really like having my complete phone history searchable on the web without having to do any sort of manual backup of my text messages and call logs. I can even add notes to text and phone conversations, star them, and find them more easily in the future. If I want to find "that movie we talked about a year ago with the cannibal spacemen" I can just search for "cannibal spacemen" and it pops up.

If that functionality is retained with the new Hangouts function, and things like AirDroid let me have SMS conversations on the computer, I'm all good. ﻿

+Nate Meier I doubt that. Google is still infinitely more open than Microsoft, and Microsoft's influence is fairly certainly destined to wane with the path they're taking. I could see apple benefiting a lot from things like this though.﻿

Fuck you Google. You have always been a distant second to Apple, but your selling point was openness, and the whole "do no evil" bit. Remember those days? Now you've just joined everyone else- but you'll never beat Apple on innovation. At least everyone knows Apple's stance as big brother- and they don't try to pretend otherwise. Did you just get tired of getting beat up by Apple, so you figured you'd go bully around Microsoft & others? Oh well, I don't care. Fuck you. I'll enjoy watching you die.﻿

+Josh Chambers. Google phone's OS is the most unstructured/segmented OS out there. There are so many flavors it's ridiculous. There are no standards for device quality, so you end up with too many different variants of screen size, device support, etc. I want to write apps that work on ALL devices or at least all devices meeting a known spec. Microsoft is doing an excellent job of making that happen with their phone os where GOOGLE is failing. 2 years from now, I'm certain we'll see 10% worldwide market penetration or more on a microsoft phone OS.﻿

I don't understand why Google created such an amazing service as GoogleVoice but seems determined to cripple it. I totally understand shutting down rogue apps that may be using the service, but if Google is also killing off apps like GrowlVoice, that would be terrible. GrowlVoice brings excellent functionality to GoogleVoice texts. It's far superior to Google's GoogleVoice page.﻿

+Danny Holyoake Danny> I use the Talkatone app all the time to send SMS on my wife's iPad, and my own iPhone 4. This utilizes GV's ability to send SMS. So you are not correct in stating you cannot send SMS w/ an iPad. Whether or not this also works on an Android tablet, I don't know.Cheers.﻿

Huh? I'm not associated with Growlvoice at all. It's something I bought in the Mac app store. I use it and like it. I've also used and kind of like VoiceMac, which is free if I'm not mistaken. In a perfect world, I want Google Voice to work with apps. I love getting texts on my Mac, and I don't think a browser window is the best way.﻿

+Ryan Hayle That is idiotic... I MIGHT support that if it was JUST receiveing pictures that is the issue with MMS not functioning. The proble is, that MMS is used to support group messaging on almost every device (and primarily the iPhone, which is everywhere.)

That means I CAN'T use my GV number as the one number to rule them all, because I will miss each and every group "text" that is sent to my number, including anything coming from any iPhone user. You can't force the whole world to change because you do things differently. The proper thing to do is to first support the ubiquitous standards, and then supplement them with additional features. Building a bunch of exciting features without supporting the basic standards makes it useless, as most people can't just go all-in. It makes Google voice a hobby, a toy, not something you can rely on as your primary number.﻿

Goodbye Google. This was the last straw. First, you killed the google sync we wanted to utilize on every new iphone/ipad/etc which worked perfectly for years on short notice.

Now, you kill our home phone service (multiple lines one for each member of the family) via Obihai adapters utilizing google voice and XMPP. We became google evangelists over the years raving about google services. Now, you've alienated your own users and bear in mind we actually contacted google to offer to PAY for google sync on our personal (not new email addresses on google business apps) and would have paid $5 per user per/month in our family JUST for that feature. We were told it was not possible and to hit the road - so we did - and have begun moving all of our email services to Office 365 because you wouldn't take our hard-earned money.

The same goes for google voice. We were about to port yet 2 more of our new cell numbers to google this week to have "one number for life" and now it's clear our entire household's phone services (for 2 adults and 3 children) will become a living hell on May 14th, 2014. We would have paid our hard earned money a small monthly fee to continue using it as we have been for years, but again, google says take your money elsewhere - so we will. We will immediately begin seeking out viable replacement for google voice in our household before May 14th.

We certainly hope someone with some business (and not simply technical) sense at google begins reviewing these IDIOTIC business decisions to alienate your own customers! After you get a million people hooked on your services like crack doesn't it make sense to turn it into a REVENUE stream and begin charging, instead of simply taking it away and telling your customers to seek out your competitors for a comparable solution to what you "used" to offer?!?

Even giants like Google with majority market-share not listening to their own users, the market trends, and screwing around with the very services that made them successful and removing features instead of adding them, all while their competition is doing the opposite, are not immune to losing market-share quickly!﻿

+Todd Stotesberry I've never received or been aware of anyone I know ever sending a "group message," in fact I never knew such a thing existed. Perhaps I'm the odd one out, but I suspect not. Being included in people's junk mass emails is bad enough. I would never want that via text as well! Something like XMPP/Hangouts group chat is actually much more useful.

It sounds from your description like Apple is to blame for this problem more than anyone. You can certainly send standard SMS messages to multiple people but they chose to go with MMS. Frankly both technologies are outdated and need to be eliminated just like the fax machine.

XMPP was the future of standards-based messaging but Google has fucked us all there.﻿

They've been working on MMS support for years now allegedly, according to their own help documents. It's nice to know that while they can't actually add any features whatsoever to Google Voice for years, they can block anyone from making third party apps, even for OSes they refuse to support. Petty squabbles triumph over user experience once again.﻿

+Nathaniel Maloney 70 GB? Seriously, dude, how much porn can one person watch? I'm not sure I even use that much data on my land connection!

I agree, though, a Google data plan would be brilliant. They are already thinking along those lines with the weather balloons, but deploying those out in the states would be quite a feat! For now, I'd be happy just getting Google Fiber in more cities.﻿

I use an app called GrowlVoice on my mac to send/receive GV texts. I will be very very irritated if Google forces them to shutdown. Christ Jesus! Publish a damn API and be done with it! Stop with the "oooo its for security" "ooo people are abusing it". Publish a usable API, charge for a cut of the app and be done with all of it! And NO, I'm not using hangouts. Its irritating enough that my GV phone calls now ring on Chrome in two places (the gmail app and my Hangouts extension) for several rings before my cell phone rings.﻿

+Luqman Mahmud you'd think if any company knew about workstations and having multiple instances of hangouts running it would be Google. At work my Mac and Linux both ring and then my phone will start.﻿

This is absolutely devastating news to obihai/google voice users. When I started a voip company in 2010 we started off with google voice as a free service for our users as well. But we decided to eventually phase that out and stay away from google because of the fact they could shut down the service anytime leaving our landline users high and dry. If anyone is interested in switching to a reasonably priced paid provider I will offer free number porting away from google voice/obihai platform. Just send me an email at support@intelafone.com and mention this post. You can signup at www.intelafone.com -Ryan﻿

Google doesn't accept any petitions from us to keep XMPP (Obi+GoogleVoice) , it will only send us petition to sign so Government can't control them. In another wants Google only ask us to sign petitions for their Good not ours.﻿

What about adding unicode support to google voice so i can send emoticons? I have the sprint integration and now that hangouts is my sms app and has all of the emoji, noone ( even other android phones) can't see them because google voice doesn't handle them....﻿

Just go the new Hangouts app and I wanted to say that it is great. Excitedly awaiting the Google Voice integration so I can have one messaging app (honestly I could care less about MMS at this point, but you didn't hear me say that lol)

For the love of God, can we at least get a reasonable explanation on WHY the iOS Hangouts app has VOIP Google Voice calling, and Android doesn't? iOS has third party apps for Google Voice too, yet it gets VOIP calling and Google's own platform has to wait for months to get the same thing.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal : The current Hangout app for Android is a total crap (using jelly bean 4.1/.2).. It just restarts, breaks and stops working all of a sudden.. Further, it does not have the voice capability yet.. Before you people close the third party access, please make sure Google voice has a stable services..Seems Google is now trying to kill its own Android platform and promoting iOS platform by giving VoIP capability,,What a shame..﻿

+Debjit Pal Yes, clearly that is the most reasonable explanation, it's happening to everyone and Google just hasn't noticed or doesn't care... Or perhaps your third-world Indian phone is a piece of garbage and it is only happening to you? Just a thought...Hangouts works just fine for the majority of users, it is simply lacking features.﻿

+Ryan Hayle How dare you to call my phone a third world garbage Indian Phone?It seems you are coming from out of the world..My phone is a Galaxy Note which is pretty much high end phone..I bet its is not working good enough for most Android users..May be google has not maintained the back compatibility with Android 4.1.2 or so..﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal Hi, I use google voice with obihai hardware to make my google voice number into a landline. If you plan on dropping support for services like these, can you provide an alternative piece of hardware to do the same thing?﻿

+Debjit Pal Sorry, I shouldn't assume you are as bad as so many of your fellow Indians based only on that, but it's getting really bad... My main point remains, however, and your initial assumption was completely wrong.

+Ryan Lewis Google never supported any services like the one you hacked together. They can't "drop" support for something that was never condoned in the first place. ﻿

+Ryan Lewis have you found Obihai listed elsewhere as one of the third-party applications that violate the Terms of Service? The Obi100 on Amazon doesn't mention anything about ending support in 2014 (not that I would expect them to, especially if they were initially violating the TOS)

Thanks Google. Break the application I use most. Win / Win for everybody eh? Not so fast Big Guns. Killing off the XMPP protocol, means that I can not communicate with my son, I can not do business at some locals, due to no "cellular" in the area. If you kill this, then you better figure out a REAL VOIP client for Android and IOS. I could just ditch Google, but would rather pay a subscription than loose functionality. BOO...﻿

+Brenden Petersen you do realize that you can place and receive calls using the Hangouts app on iOS, right (all through your wifi connection and your google voice number)? The full solution has been implemented on iOS. Hopefully it will come to Android soon.﻿

+Stephen Holst Dont you think Google is killing its own Android? Why iOS first? That implies Google has implicitly agreed that iOS is a more used OS than Android.. While Apple was trying to create their own map app, Google is trying to create a complete Hangout app for iOS.. Is not it funny?﻿

+Debjit Pal I've stopped asking "why" when it comes to Google. LOL I agree that it is odd they sometimes do things for iOS first but the only rational I can come up with is that the complete integration of Hangouts on Android is more complex and thus takes more time. But who knows. For several years there wasn't even a whisper about Google Voice. Now it seems like there are new things happening all the time and in a seemingly random fashion.﻿

+Stephen HolstNo, I didn't realize that..yet. May have to send back the shiny Galaxy S4 i just got and get an iPhone 5s. 3rd party apps (that appear to be best practices) as the reason, I don't buy the whole story. Personally, I like the bastard stepchild look of GV app / web. Does 1 thing and does it well.﻿

+Brenden Petersen Hopefully the features comes to Android soon too. I just switched from an iPhone to the Moto X and I can't believe how much better Google Voice integrates with the device. But it is lacking that one feature at the moment.

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. Google never stated it will be a VoIP service. So they will never support that. I am also an avid user of Google services, but have learned my lesson to never totally depend on a "FREE" service. It could be taken away at any time. Although, it's a great thing that 3rd party apps/hardware could give us a little bit more sweets in our lives, but sweets comes with cavities that needs to be pulled out if not taken GOOD care of it. I am not supporting GV's direction, I'm just being realistic on this. Google has offered many things "FREE" and with that there are consequences. I am also frustrated that why can't Google just get the GV VoIP service over and done with. There is no need to mess around with a good thing. I don't think there's much risk in getting VoIP on GV and also have it on Hangouts. People uses Skype because it can do both, a landline and chat over the computer. If Google wants to compete with Skype that's what they should do. I know that at one point GV is trying to take market share in this VoIP service, but its hard for Google Users like us, to convince non Google users to completely switch over to Google if they keep changing their service on us. We have NO basis to say that Google is the way to go.

I have been using GV for a while and am quite happy with their service, now with the uncertain change, I am not sure where to go but wait it out. Therefore, can't tell my friends to give Google services a try when I don't even know what's going to happen.﻿

I hope that you're going to make your own alternative for GrooveIP since you're cutting them off! I have NO CELL SIGNAL at home and this is the best and easiest way for me to continue to get phone calls at home!﻿

I hope you all realise that all you have to do is pay for your own SIP provider and you can keep using Google Voice for everything. Android even has built-in SIP support. Enough with the whining, cheapskates!﻿

Nikhyl SinghalCan someone address how this will affect GV and Obi for home VOIP usage? I don't have Android, I don't have a smartphone, I can't even get a cell signal inside my home to use those services at home. It seems all the responses about TOS violators and offendor services are related about mobile usage, What about home usage without any mobile usage? I'm homebound and rarely use mobile beyond a tracfone, am I suppose to buy an android phone for phone services despite it won't work for me and is unneeded?.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal , I want to point out to you how many audio-processing features GrooveIP has in it. The user can set all the DSP parameters, and they are tweaked for individual devices to get around bugs. Is this level of functionality going to exist in the new Hangouts, and is it going to be available to those of us with Gingerbread devices?

My recommendation to solve this problem is for Google to buy GrooveIP from snrb labs, and modify it to be the new Hangouts. Those audio processing features are amazing, and we want them.

Better yet, as +Paul Danger Kile pointed out, nowhere have I heard of a Google Voice security breach, and GrooveIP uses all the best (OAuth2) security features available; so the best solution is to change your terms of service, so that other apps can be developed, since this is the spirit of openness that Google championed with Android and "Don't be evil"!!!﻿

I don't pay for Google Voice, but I do own an Android device, and will likely be getting a newer one in the next month or so. I'm not complaining about the merge with Hangouts if it brings all the features Google promised, I just would like to have all the options that we had before. Voice+Hangouts+faster :) == win! And if they add the Google Voice API to the existing Hangouts API, then we're all set!﻿

+Stephen Holst but we WOULD pay for it Stephen! So many people use google voice for landline replacements at home with Obi that they could have a viable service, but they are too busy pushing people on android and google +. charge for it, put advertisements on calls, do what they need to.﻿

+Noose Newsome I totally agree. I'd pay for it too. But that still wouldn't change the fact that people paid Obi for a service and obviously Obi didn't read the fine print when they offered the service. If I had purchased an Obihai device I would be bitching to them, not Google.

For the record, I pay for Google Drive space. And even as a paying customer I still can't force them to make a Google Drive for Linux app. Google was extremely clear that Voice was a forwarding service all along and required you to have a working phone to set it up. Now that they are potentially adding IP voice services it doesn't give us the right to bitch to Google about a third party product that won't be supported. ﻿

+Ryan Hayle what's worse is that when you go to the OBi110 listing on Amazon it still says that it works with Google Voice without any mention of the termination next spring. And it even describes Google Voice as an internet phone service provide which it definitely is not. Talk about an evil company!﻿

+Stephen HolstWe didn't pay Obi for a service, I paid Obi for ATA hardware box, they never promised service with google, Google was just available, other providers are available with Obi, but google setup was simple without the complexity the other include and that is why people liked it and chose google. Google voice was our service that we added to the hardware box, not an Obi advertised service.

I'm not bitching, I'm voicing my opinion to maybe persuede. I know google will do what is best for google, I understand that. But no harm in trying to get google to see the "light". I just wish google wasn't so pro-android and moving away from desktop, there are laptop/desktop users still out here that are getting squashed in it's step for an all mobile world.﻿

+Ryan HayleBecause in a way I trust google in the long run, google will be here 30 years from now, can't say that for the others. I bought into google early on and even though I have been disgusted with few changes(igoogle), still my preferred company. the others are complex, throw out tech jargon, Google is much like apple, ease of use.﻿

+Ryan Hayle I recently started service with VOIPo. Still use GV but now pay VOIPo for the line. At $185 for the first 2 years it's extremely affordable. Yes it will go up after that but even $185 / year is certainly doable.﻿

I hope it get's worked out before May. Although I will say I should probably make these analog phones tied into the Obi/GV 911 compatible so maybe I get a new home # through a real SIP service provider that is Obi freindly and that has e911 and make that new # a forwarding phone on GV so at least my cordless phones will ring. It's probably to much to wish for to have GV support E911, ATA box, MMS, and shortcode texting all for free. But it would be nice. :)﻿

So it's been almost two months after IOS gets VOIP and still no love for android? I get the whole carrier work on SMS/MMS but for the love of all that is holy when can android fans get some VOIP love???﻿

+Mike Clinton I am now forwarding my GV number to my new VOIP provider. I also have a SIP Client on my phone so I can return calls using my new number. Other than the smoothness of sms integration I've recreated pretty much everything GV did and it's not costing me very much at all. I actually have additional functionality that GV did not provide like "follow me" (which I love).﻿

I have tried more then a dozen SIP clients with varying success bit none work well enough for everyday use (at least on my nexus 5). Using the default SIP function in the dialer is pretty solid but getting that to work adds more moving parts which add their own problems.﻿

+Alan Schneider I really like csipsimple but I have found it unstable (stable and nightlies). Particularly if you have other SIP/VOIP clients. Default SIP still uses your cell minutes ( I confirmed this myself on T-Mobile) even when on WiFi (data turned off).﻿

+Rafael Diaz Verizon makes it almost impossible to use the built-in SIP client and part of my reasoning for using an outside SIP client is to avoid more cell minutes. I've considered trying Bria but it seems that doesn't change screen orientation which is also very important to me since I use my S3 in a car dock and sometimes need to make calls.﻿

GrooveIP is a violator as they state on their app page in the Google Play Store that they will no longer be permitted to use Google Voice starting May 16th, the day after Google Voice stops supporting xxmp protocol. I'm liking Hangouts, and I'd much rather be making my Google Voice calls using a Google app than a 3rd-party app. I, too, like the direction Google is going on their Android platform. 4.4.2 is cleaner and fixes lots of the 4.4 quirks. It's almost there. Still lots of work, but we're all a bit spoiled I'd say. It's pretty dammed awesome the things Google offers, so many of which are free. Peace.﻿

+Alan Schneider This is one reason for Google to step up and do the non-evil thing here. I'm not (yet) regretting my N5 buy but it is disappointing that Google has let the voice side just stagnant all these years. GV should already be beyond these minor feature requests. I'll reinstall Bria and confirm the orientation.﻿

Port your GV number to your phone and you've got Google Voice to make all your calls and texts permanently on your phone. The instructions on how to do this are all explained on Google Voice's settings or help. All the free services Google offers yet they aren't enough, it would seem, based on the amount of whining going on. There's still almost half a year before the 3rd party apps like GrooVe IP have to stop using GV, and hopefully by then Google will have Hangouts fully functioning. ﻿

I was at the Google Voice Blog and the most recent update seemed to be May 20 2013. There is NOW is new problem as of 24 hours. I do not know where to tell Google about this except from here. I cannot go to Google Contacts and make a call... the 'icon' to click is not there. I have to go to my place calls via my Inbox to find the number I need to call.﻿

FFS. i just found out about this. +Nikhyl Singhal drops this bomb and then doesn't even have the cajones to reply to a single comment here? sad. "a threat to your security"?? who do you think you're fooling? this is all about control! #6 here https://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/ : "You can make money without doing evil." learn it. love it. live it.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal, or anyone on this thread. I use Talkatone every day, as I ported all 5 phone numbers my family had to Google Voice. The app pulled all the numbers into a single application so our Nexuses (plural) all rang when someone called us back in the States. We moved to the UK and this is our best option for calling back home. What is going to happen May 15th when the APIs are killed off? What will replace great applications like Talkatone? Hangouts? If you don't have a USA handset, how can we call over IOS or Android? I could care less about SMS and MMS, I want the Voice function of Google Voice.﻿

I'm not really interested in downgrading from Google Talk or Google Voice to Hangouts (and I'm dreading the hassle of getting Google to disable the internal routing that makes migrating from Google Talk on a Google Apps domain to using a non-google XMPP provider that actually does federation correctly). But I suppose, once Google releases the appropriate Telepathy plugin for Maemo to use Google Voice (or enables SIP registration), the service should at least remain usable.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal I have Google Voice/Sprint integration. But when I receive emojis in SMS, Google Voice changes them to just question mark symbols. Is there a fix for this? I have a Nexus 5 running latest version of Kit Kat. ﻿

I hate to ask but I must persist...I have a business VoIP service with Accessline which was acquired by Intermedia. Its a number that I don't want to give up and want to integrate with my google apps. I have asked Intermedia if the number can be ported and they said YES they'd cooperate in anyway possible. What can I do? ﻿

+Maria Hernandez I would suggest porting it to a T mobile prepaid line first, if you have any issues. I did that with a family's Verizon home phone. Once it was on T mobile I ported it to Google Voice with no problems.﻿

Hi +Nikhyl Singhal , it's about 4 months since your original post. Any chance we can get an update on Hangouts + GV integration? (FYI, "something" recently updated -- maybe Google Now -- and I can no longer send text messages by voice command. Google Now says it was sent, but nothing happens. Major loss of functionality and safety!)﻿

I'm considering Skype as an alternative. There's a lot to say for its solid reliability and commitment to quality... (something I've learned to hate about Google). By far it has the best chat functions. Skype's had some problems with their Android app, but it now seems to work most of the time. It isn't free, but neither are other solutions. Missing functions? Sure, but it works reliably on both my cell and my computer. And, the UI continues to improve, not get worse.

I've sadly invested my time and reputation promoting Google Voice, but it's getting so unreliable and hard to use, I've just about had it. Managing Groups, filters, contacts and rules is so difficult to get right, no one can do it without the missing documentation. As evidence of the lack of detailed quality, try doing a search in the GV website for phone numbers from your past calls. (It can't properly parse the stings that you can copy and paste from your call history). If this team had been in charge of search, we still be using AltaVista.

More importantly, Google has no commitment to GV, and has seen no real value in providing Google Voice long term. Every call to or from a landline costs them a penny or so, per minute. GV is a financial loser for Google, with little hope of a decent ROI. OTOH, if they weren't committed to seeing it through to create a greater product than GC gave them, then why'd they buy it? It's sad, because this could have become a world class PBX as the centerpiece of Google Apps, and become essential part of every business. ﻿

Currently, I use Google Talk/Voice on my computer to provide me with a "land line" since my cell carrier provides no coverage in my remote location (in rural Texas). When I first tried Hangouts, I lost my ability to place/receive calls so I reverted back. Is that fixed now?

Also, in order for my cell phone to place and receive calls when I'm not visiting San Antonio (i.e. at home), I've had to use Groove IP. As a result, I never redirected my mobile number to my Google number. It's now March 2014... Does Hangouts allow VoIP calls yet? Can I install Hangouts now and still be able to use my phone at home?

This is critically important to me because I'm unemployed and receive requests for phone interviews from time to time.﻿

+Alex Dunkel Hangouts on iOS let's you make VoIP calls. Hangouts on the web now does let you make and receive calls. Hangouts on Android does not seem like a priority for +Nikhyl Singhal and team so therefore does not have any VoIP capability.﻿

May 15th will be a sad day as the native Google Voice app stops working once you loss access to a USA phone number, even if you did need the old number. Groove IP was a good work around but come May 15th I will lose the ability to call my USA based co-workers. Time for someone to come up with an open source peer to peer VOIP solution so we are not at the mercy of Google changing moods.﻿

Google Voice is awesome! When will Google take the next obvious step and extend it into an SMB PBX system? It's a logical adjacent product to google apps and would make Google the one-stop SMB enabler. Thanks. Keep up the good work.﻿

+Nathaniel Maloney Same here. I'm sure you feel exactly the way I do. Betrayed by +Google and +Nikhyl Singhal . It's not even that the MMS support isn't there but there's no communication about when it'll happen. ﻿

Hey Nikhyl - My recent KitKat update (for T-mobile) really messed me up... I cannot use Google Voice as my primary SMS app any longer and I'm now being charged by my carrier for Google Voice text messages. Any insight on how to resolve this or am I forced to ditch google voice?﻿

+Eric Nay that seems to be the problem (I must choose to use hangouts or the native messaging app as the default messaging app). And in Kit Kat 4.4.2 (I'm using a moto x) GV is no longer one of the options in sms settings whereas previously it WAS.﻿ So I'm not able to do what you propose.﻿

I'm not familiar the technical jargon, but I know this: I love GoogleVoice. It's so simple. One number, and you be reached anywhere. So convenient to get text messages of my voicemails and have them saved in my account, and even be able to download them. I was able to save and download voicemails from family members who have since died and turn them into MP3's to listen to anytime. Those messages are snapshots in time and are truly precious to me

GoogleVoice works seamlessly with the ObiHai box to provide fantastic, inexpensive, home phone service. I love using GoogleVoice home phones to make international calls as Google's rates are unbeatable. I will be truly saddened if I can no longer use GoogleVoice for my home phone service and lose access to saved voicemails as I do now. Please find a way to keep it going and continue integration with ObiHai to end the monopoly of the current telephone service providers.﻿

Fyi I find the solution to my problem for sitting interested.... It was due to the setting mentioned in the Note at the end of this support post. https://support.google.com/voice/answer/115063?hl=en. Turns out on kit Kat update the setting must have changed and texts were forwarding to my Tmobile #and incurring overage charges.﻿

Seriously... the move to block Obi is going to make me look at competitor's products (including pay products) where I traditionally went to Google. Very petty way to erase a lot of goodwill with customers. +Dipti Nevrekar﻿

+Scott Gruber Perhaps you should look at products not made by Obi, a shitty company that made a hack product on an unauthorised, reverse-engineered API. Obi is the one you should be pissed at. They charged you for that shit! What assholes.﻿

I miss GrowlVoice more than I can put into words. Very disappointed in Google for this decision. GoogleVoice has basically been ignored for years and then the primary thing that I used it for (easy SMS from my laptop) gets shut down in the name of security (bullsh**).

Fwiw, a number of my friends who work at Google have basically told me to not bother with Google Voice anymore because it's being poorly run. I tend to agree after the impacts of this recent change. Well done Google.﻿

I had put this off in the back of my mind for a while until I saw the new article the other day reminding everyone about shuttering xmpp. As someone who's hearing impaired I don't make a whole lot of phone calls but I still like to have the service when needed. It's also one of the reasons I can't justify paying such a high price for cellular, especially with U.S. prices compared to other countries that actually have decent competition and lower prices, and that's where T mobile's $30 plan came into play.

It was a great way for me to use the 5GB of data coupled with GrooveIP to make phone calls or receive them when people weren't sending me text messages. I'll be rather disappointed if there isn't any integration with hangouts or an update to the google voice app although that seems pretty unlikely with people saying GV hasn't been worked on for so long. I guess for now I'll have to really budget the 100 minutes included in the $30 plan...﻿

iOS hangouts app got Google Voice integration for Christmas December 2013, and Android KITKAT users still do not have this feature in May 2014!! Why didn't you tell us we would be waiting and hating iOS EVEN MORE until summer 2014? Android is supposedly Google OS baby!!!! Why is iOS getting the sweet enjoyment that Android users should be able to brag about first? You say that it's because 3rd party vendors illegally integrate google voice into their apps, like Talkatone, but they ALSO did this on their iOS app too!!!! NOT HAPPY!!! you recently releases version 2.1 of android hangouts app, with a bunch of USELESS FEATURES to make us think we have better features than iOS - WE DON'T!!! GIVE ME, A LOYAL KITKAT USER, GOOGLE VOICE NOW ON MY HANGOUTS APP!!!! ﻿

+Armani Diangelo The iOS Hangouts app does not have Google Voice integration. It lets you make outgoing calls, but more importantly, it doesn't send or receive text messages or voicemail.

Google Voice is a product that hasn't made a lot of money for Google I would imagine. Very few opportunities to show adverts. I almost wish they would just shut it down rather than stringing us along for all these years.﻿

+Ryan Hayle what are you talking about? I have an iPod touch on iOS that I use everyday to make and receive calls with google voice on the hangouts app....I don't care about text or Ms messages! You obviously have not used hangouts on iOS. :)﻿

+Armani Diangelo No, I'm not stupid enough to buy an Apple product. But regardless, you apparently didn't read what I wrote, when I acknowledged that it had voice calls, but that is hardly the same as "integration." Voicemail is a huge piece of it, and just because you don't use text messages doesn't mean that it isn't necessary for true Google Voice integration.

Google Voice was never about making or receiving calls! Obviously our phones always did that just fine. It is about having a single number, routing calls to different devices, transcribing and accessing voicemail, and text messaging on all devices. The VoIP features are great, especially when traveling, but they are not a priority for most of us who already have unlimited minutes anyway. Except for those who just want to have a free phone line.﻿

I travel a overseas, so, making free google voice calls to USA is paramount. I (reluctantly) had to buy an ipod touch just for that purpose. your unlimited operator minutes are useless when roaming outside US borders, so we are talking apples and oranges, but agree to disagree....goggle voice is missing on android hangouts to make/receive calls, and my gripe is that iOS has it since Dec. 2013, and Android kit kat does not.﻿

Why has android not been updated to fix the terrible echo when making VOIP calls over the native dialer? Why has hangouts not been updated on android to allow for voice calling? Extend 'unofficial' support for xmpp please.﻿

+Nikhyl Singhal - Per +Thomas Latsch's post, "Today is 15.05.2014!" You write above, "third-party applications ... must stop making unauthorized use of Google Voice to run their services and transition users by May 15, 2014." Is something happening on this front?...

Some of these third-party app's provide functionality that +Google Voice does not. Eliminating these services may make GVoice users more secure -- and unhappy. Where can we learn more about Google's intentions?...﻿

May 16th! You've now shut down the viable 3rd party Voice options. Still No voice compatibility with Android hangouts! iOS has had it for.. 8months?! How is this possible that the iOS users are getting far better treatment? Uncool google. ﻿

Thanks so that the new year to year old man and a half hour or so of course I remember you saying that I am not a problem for me and I will be able to get it done by the end up with the same thing in common with you and I will have the same thing with the same time as a result of the most popular in the morning of a new one and﻿

Ok seriously +Nikhyl Singhal I know until given permission you can't say anything to us but this is getting a little ridiculous. I understand that the third parties were using an unofficial API but you still took functionality away from the users and we are upset. At least an acknowledgement of this fact would be nice. ﻿

This is beyond insane. You ensure iOS users can use Voip but not Android? Why not simple delay killing 3rd party service until you get you collective act together? Someone needs to be let go over this﻿

I've been using Groove Ip for years but I don't want a new phone number nor do I want to pay Google to port my current one. Again. This is insanity for a billion dollar company and whoever is responsible should be unemployed. ﻿

That's a very good analogy Steven. The idea that a company like GrooveIP was a threat to us is laughable. Any 3rd party apt deemed by Google to violate their TOS should not have been available in the Google Play store. Yet they were. Every second that goes by without a solution for Android users is nail in their own coffin for GV, Hangouts and Google Plus. Clearly they have people working this that don't relate to the human experience. ﻿

+Steven Scharf don't forget google did not interrupt this service from iOS users, if you have an ipod touch/iphone, you can make google voice VOIP calls with the iOS hangouts app today. I have no clue what strings Apple pulled to avoid getting thsi feature yanked from iOS hangoust by Google. I'm extremely upset about it!﻿

+T Black it was either GrooveIP with ring.to service, OR to just to save my old GV number, get an ipod touch for this sole purpose of making VOIP calls with hangouts app. Now, to someone overseas to call USA for free, and receive unlimited calls from USA, this is invaluable, so I opted for the much cheaper option of paying 3.99 for the GrooveIP app, vs 300USD for an ipod touch and its lame iOS 7!! Of course, if you are in USA, and never leave to other countries, then your operator unlimited minutes covers you, but useless overseas.﻿

+Armani Diangelo I started out using an Ipod and portable Wifi device years ago. Apple makes doing Voip ridiculously difficult. GrooveiP was a great solution after trying many other Voip workarounds like PBXs etc. If the rumor is true about Google releasing an API in the last week so that companies like GrooveiP can "legally" make their apps that would be ideal. Don't buy an iOS product. It will be rendered useless by iOS updates before you know it. ﻿

> These apps violate our Terms of Service and pose a threat to your security

Fuck you. Seriously, Fuck. You. Don't fucking lie to us. 'Threat to our security' is obvious bullshit, and you know it. If it is a risk to my security, it is a risk I choose to accept.

I bought this 'violating' app on the Play Store. GOOGLE received revenue from the sale.

I am a paying customer of GV. I was relying on having it, and only needing my Android tablet for calls on my business trip.

After realizing Groove doesn't work, I download the Google Voice app. Wait, it routes GV calls through..my desktop computer? FAIL! So, I read you can make calls from Hangouts. OK, surely Google isn't out to totally fuck me here, I'm game, I'll try their new solution. It can't make voice out calls at all. Fucking fail. Then I learn the iOS hangouts app has been able to make calls for six months, while Android still does not have this feature two weeks after you cut off the XMPP guys. Now, I'm just PISSED.

Google has screwed me over. One too many times. I'm stuck without any way to make calls, because I trusted Google.

This is the last straw. The romance is over. I'll continue to use Android because the alternatives are worse, but as soon as someone other than MS/Apple a viable solution, I'm out of here. And probably out of the Google ecosystem entirely, because I have learned through hard experience that GOOGLE DOES NOT MAKE PRODUCTS THAT CAN BE TRUSTED TO PROVIDE A RELIABLE AND CONSISTENT SOLUTION.

This will be the word not just for my own use, but for the dozens of people who are influenced by my technical buying advice.

Fuck you, Google. Fucking the customer is a shitty business strategy.﻿

And with this, today I am abandoning the number I have trusted Google with for the last several years, and switching to ring.to. You've fucked up one too many times. I doubt I can even trust you to competently host my email any more.﻿

Sasha,how do you really feel? :D hey we all feel your pain, I've ben using Google Voice since the days where you had to get an invitation by Google to obtain a number years ago...and i have used the number for travel overseas to make free calls. It is an insult that they allowed iOS hangouts to continue to enjoy VOIP calls via Google Voice, and took away from android. With that said, take a deep breath, and enjoy GrooveIP - been using them for 2 weeks for 3+hr VOIP calls and it is just perfect!! Even if Google were to release a new version of hangouts tomorrow that allowed VOIP calls again, i would not leave GrooveIP - no reason to.﻿

Sasha, thanks for posting that. It's one thing for Google to just say, "we're discontinuing Google Voice as you know it because it's not profitable" but the crap about "a threat to your security" is so lame and condescending.

Today I paid $4.99 for GrooveIP and an incoming phone number from ring.to. They at least say that the service is currently free, implying that it may not always be free, which is fine. No international calling is available at any price. Obihai is in a state of confusion right now but in a month or so they may have ring.to service available as well.﻿

+Armani DiangeloI will look it up. Normally i would be calm in a situation like this, but my phone has been off since january, but internet is included in the rent. I understand google's position, it's probably a conflict of interest for them more than it's a "security issue" for us. But what's good for Google is usually good for it's fans.﻿

I was really enjoying using VoicePlus or Xvoice+ to get full Google Voice integration on my non-sprint phone (why is this still only available on Sprint??) and now that you've cut off the service I have to go back to checking text messages and Hangouts separately.

Terrible. How dare shmoogle disable the xmpp protocol for google voice. These third party apps were authorized as the user must specifically give the third party app their voice login credentials. The apps would simply extend voice functionality by providing a SIP server that routed phone calls to and from voice. You have severely crippled voice and your claims that third party apps were violating terms of service are just an excuse as you are afraid of litigation from the carriers. Disgusting, cowardly behaviour. Since you can't seem to stick up for the little guy (your users) you should change your motto from "do no evil" to "do no good either".﻿

+Adi Peshkess MetroPCS also allows it's androids to have google voice take over as everything (I've never given out any of my metroPCS numbers, which is good, none of them work anymore). Although i think they're connected to sprint somehow...﻿

+Dustin Beyette There are many second-tier wireless providers that just piggy-back on existing networks. StraightTalk uses T-Mobile and AT&T networks. MetroPCS probably uses Sprint, as does RepublicWireless. I'm guessing the ones that use Sprint also allow the Google Voice integration. However, Spring, like Verizon, uses CDMA technology, so a GSM phone (like T-Mobile and AT&T) won't work on those networks. ﻿

"rest assured, we’re working to support SMS messages [in hangouts] for all Google Voice phone numbers by early next year" I sincerely hope to at least hear about this sometime during I/O the next couple days. Very disappointed it was not in the keynote. "early next year" by even the most absurd interpretations should be in the first half of the year, and we are exactly 1 week away from being over halfway through the year. Even if a release doesn't happen, an update should happen or have happened in "early 2014"﻿

Google you suck and suck and suck and suck and and you know what you suck on. I'm done with ya. You actually did some shit for iOS befor Android? What the fuck is wrong you people? You sniff our email for your advertising, you redirect searches away from anything that you don't like politically or morally....you are just as bad as the NSA. Google...FUCK YOU ..FUCK OFF!﻿

Did you Google VC seriously just force me to make a phone call from google hangouts vs from my email like I normally do? Really? Not only have you forced me to keep a hangouts page open to receive calls(when i really only want to keep my email page open), but even when I do that, the popup window opens telling me to install a plugin IVE ALREADY INSTALLED 20 TIMES NOW!!!!

Why can't Google make an interface that is easy to use? I mean, make a keypad that's large and occupies the whole device's screen and make a couple of more links for contacts etc. Y'all have messed up a good thing with the Hangouts crap. Scare people away.﻿